Jury Members

Jury for the 2019 Geneva Challenge

Jenö C.A. Staehelin (Chair)

Jenö Staehelin is the founder and patron of the Advancing Development Goals contests. He believes in the participation of talented young minds in framing and implementing an international development agenda. Ambassador Staehelin built an impressive carreer in the Swiss Department of Foreign Affairs, having served as the former Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the UN in New York. He orchestrated the referendum by which the people and cantons of Switzerland approved the country's membership to the United Nations. Among other acheivements as activities, he is also a former President of the Executive Board of UNICEF and an honorary member of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Ann Aerts

Dr Aerts is Head of the Novartis Foundation whose goal is to expand access to quality healthcare and eliminate diseases such as leprosy and malaria. Before her current role, Ann was Franchise Medical Director Critical Care and Therapeutic Area Head Cardiovascular and Metabolism in Novartis Pharma. Prior to this, she served as Director of the Lung and Tuberculosis Association in Belgium, as Head of the Health Services Department of the International Committee of the Red Cross and was Health Coordinator for the ICRC in several countries. Ann is a member of the Broadband Commission for Digital Development, the Governing Council of the UN Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries and the International Advisory Board of the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health.

Florian Schatz

Florian Schatz is a development practitioner with a track record in the management, monitoring and evaluation of international development projects. He has completed assignments with multilateral (UNDP, World Bank, OECD), bilateral (GIZ, DFID, Norad, DFAT/Ausaid, GAC/CIDA), private (Itad, Palladium) and non-governmental (Transparency International, Save the Children) organisations in various countries all over the world. He is a specialist in the area of governance, in particular in supporting citizen participation and anticorruption initiatives. Florian serves currently as the technical advisor to the Director General of Madagascar’s national anticorruption office. He studied in Berlin, Paris, New York and London, and earned his Master’s degree in Development Management from the London School of Economics.

Maria Luisa Silva

Maria Luisa Silva is the Director of the UNDP Office in Geneva. She has over 25 years’ experience in UNDP and the UN system, most recently as UN Resident Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative in Peru (2014-2015). From 2009-14 she served in UNEP as Executive Secretary for the Convention for Protection of the Marine Environment in the Mediterranean and its Commission on Sustainable Development. Prior to joining the United Nations, she was consultant on European Affairs with Deloitte at their Brussels office, and teached international law at the University of Seville (Spain). Maria Luisa Silva holds a Master’s Degree in International and Public Law from the University of Seville, and a post graduate certificate on European Integration from the College of Europe, in Bruges (Belgium).

Masao Takahashi

Masao Takahashi is the Member of the Executive Committee of The World Economic Forum. He has been active leading public-private partnership (PPP) agenda on social transformation with technology innovation. At the Forum, he is currently overseeing Japan agenda, Global Private sector relationship and community of technology innovators. He has a track record in change management, business development, public-private partnership (PPP), policy reform, privatization and Corporate Social Responsibility in various countries including Africa, Asia, and Europe. Prior to his current roles, he was the head of business sector agenda on Asia (South-East Asia, South Asia, and Japan) of the Forum, and chief consultant on global management reform at a Japanese think-tank, Nomura Research Institute (Tokyo). He studied in Yokohama, Sao Paulo, Barcelona and Geneva, and holds his Master’s degrees in Engineering (Yokohama National University, Japan), Business Administration (IESE Business School, Spain) and Global leadership Fellow (World Economic Forum).